Portfolio, Sketchbook, DeviantArt, Contact : marcdmc@gmail.com
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Sunday 28 February 2010

Front Walk WIP

Front Walk Animation WIP from Marc McCabe on Vimeo.



so heres the new animation in progress. its a frog character, I just kinda drew him, no thought went into his design, was a doodle really.
I was going to have him croach every time he took a step but now im thinking il just have him bob his head up and down. I want to make a moving background for this one but like most things I want to do, I cant because of things i have to do

Oops..

Walk cycle WIP1 bugs from Marc McCabe on Vimeo.



I meant to post this aaaaaaages ago, I uploaded it to vimeo and everything, guess it just slipped my mind.
Anyway Il be posting another animation after this, just as soon as vimeo finishes its thing that it does that takes 30 minutes.. I think its just punishment for not giving them money.

Btw I realise bugs has no hands, he will have hands, Im just too lazy to draw something that wont change anyway

Saturday 27 February 2010

Figure drawing + PAINTINGOMGWTF







Well, I decided today id do some figure drawing to warm me up, and it being 2pm I said id throw on the CrimsonDagger stream with Dave Rapoza http://www.livestream.com/fuckinartwithmrdelicious for some motivation. It ended up going on for two hours, and I continued to paint for another 2 hours... oops! But im actually really surprised at the result I got and I learned alot, but im not at all surprised it took 3 hours... I need to find some way that works for me to paint quicker digitally

Saturday 20 February 2010

Friday 19 February 2010

Figure drawings gone a bit mad
































































I started drawing the first one and after about a line I was getting really aggrivated, I dont know why, just one of those days. So I decided for these just to draw them freely, alot more expressively and not to worry about anatomy or anything. Well I actually kind of like them, still, got a long way to go.

Chesire Cat - better picture

















Really wish this got entered properly ... just look at the prize http://imaginismstudios.blogspot.com/2010/02/cheshire-hat.html
and all I had to do was reduce the size before uploading ha!

Thursday 18 February 2010

Chesire Cat


















Entry for the Kei Acedera contest over at http://68.71.33.133/Talent/member/my_contest_items.php?ContestID=213

Spent all day at it, 9 to 10. The end time for submission was at 10 and unfortunatly in my tired state I uploaded the file too big and It doesnt show. So basically FUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKK

cool piece for my portfolio though
il upload a better picture tomorow plus a process shot and sketches

I wanted a painting by Kei SOOO BADDD :(
I guess Il just buy one :S yeah right



Story of picture : Alice is in the queens ground and was invited to play crochet with the queens soldiers. Her bat is a flamingo and the ball is a hedgehog, shes totally baffled and at that moment the Chesire cat appears, she explains the randomness of the situation to him while the queen stomps around the place yelling "off with his head!"
such a cool story

Wednesday 17 February 2010

Bugs WIP

Walk cycle WIP1 bugs from Marc McCabe on Vimeo.



My walk cycle for college
Need to add hands and draw in the face for every frame, its only drawn on the first frame

This was so cool animating one of my beloved childhood cartoon idles haha. Never imagined id be doing this. And the fact that its got humor in it, well I think it does. The first time I did a pencil test of this it made me laugh, it even made my lecturer laugh a little. Thats gotta mean im doing something right ( laugh in a good way :P )

Holly Mac Caba



She was lying down behind me when I was doing my figure studies so I thought Id draw her in that style
I have more drawings of her from this week maybe il post




OH and she doesnt have two heads... she just moved

Sie Liebt Dich YEAH YEAH YEAH

First set ref was posemaniacs
Then character design . com
Next I wana try one of two things, giving the posemaniacs drawings more character like the characterdesign ref drawings, and another thing I want to draw is putting them in a situation or story











Monday 15 February 2010

Figure drawings

Trying out a new style, after seeing http://berkolounger.livejournal.com/185910.html#cutid1
I was feeling totally demoralised, I kept thinking I wish I could draw like that, so I said fuck it if I dont try Il keep thinking I cant do it.
Ive posted every drawing I did trying to figure it out(not including the copies). Even the first shit ones. I think I really improved. My last 5 drawings are pretty good I think.
At first It was hard to think about any of the things I usually do when drawing the figure. Composition, scale, proportions, structure etc. All I could think of was getting that look. The secret to it for me was not actually drawing what I saw, but characterising it. I would just glance at the photo ref, and then do my own thing.
Photo ref : http://www.characterdesigns.com/index.php?sitepage=photosets










Me, Myself, I, Me AGAIN



Watercolors are impossible to photograph... Its just not the same!

Illustration Project

(not much about the painting itself in this paragraph)
My chosen story was The Boyhood Deads of Fionn Mac Cumhaill, which im not certain is published :P But I think its part of a collection of tales....maybe. ANYWAY I know what happens in the story so thats enough for me.
The scene I chose to paint in the end is when Fionn is sent to kill Aillén mac Midgna the evil music playing goblin prick. Every year Aillén would go to Tara, play his harp, put all the men to sleep (coz what are the women guna do in fairness HAHA joking..) and then he would burn Tara to the ground.
My painting is supposed to show Fionn finding Aillén, floating above the burning village. Im not sure if he could float, or in fact if Fionn defeated Aillén before he had the chance to burn the place but it makes for a better picture.

First I did thumbnails, obviously the best way to start. You can work out composition, lighting, colors, poses to some extent and if it doesnt work you havent spent very long drawing it anyway so thats why I like to do them.
For this painting, I came to a decision fairly quickly. For general colors I chose the middle of the 7 color thumbnails, and everything else came with time.


Research is important, although by the time I got to the final look of my painting the only object here I used were the posts and the pot.


Lots of problems in my first run at it. First off Id advise anyone going to a watercolor painting with more than one wash, to learn as much as you can about the paper and its reactions. Unless you dont have a specific plan or look in mind, in that case just let the chemicals do their thing!
My biggest problem with this painting were those pesky white spots, where the sizing of the paper had fused with my watercolors but I didnt leave enough time for the bond to really set in, its complicated. I still dont really understand it I just know how to avoid it. But what kept happening was I would go over an area with color, and if I brushed over it again the paint would lift up, and after that nothing would go down there until it was dry, thus creating white spots, ARGH!
If that wasnt enough, I started back at it again using masking fluid to cover the light areas, and when I lifted it off it ripped the top layer of the paper off. It was one of those wacky boiling kettle moments where I turned all red and steam shot out my ears.


Despite that demoralising experience I picked up a new sheet right away and did a really really good drawing, I even added new things, better details, and improved poses. After that I decided Id try using B&W acrylics to paint the tones, hoping that later I wouldnt have to do as many passes of watercolor. Well unfortunately I still didnt know the reasons for those white spots. After 2 hours of drawing and an hour of blocking in the tones, I started with the colors and soon enough it was happening again, I think I just started to cry. I actually got so frustrated I got the acrylics out and started painting over it with them, there was more problems with that than the watercolors but I just wanted to mess up the painting, I was pissed off.


After that I decided I was rushing into things way too much, I thought I knew stuff about watercolors, but there is a HUGE difference between watercolor sketches and watercolor paintings with several layers. Even that orange I painted, there was gaps of several hours between each pass, and I took it very slow. But with this painting, I only had a few hours each evening and I have a deadline.
SO, for the next week or so I researched into all sorts of stuff, I only ever used handprint.com http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/water.html, the best watercolor guide EVER. Then I bought two new brushes and a whole bunch of new tube paints, warm and cool for each main color, except yellow, the earth tones, and B&W. After two days of twiddling my thumbs being afraid to touch my new fancy brushes to paint for all the stuff I learned about what youre NOT suppose to do with your brushes ( turns out I did near everything on the list) I finally prepped the next two paintings you see, just using yellow ochre, and I let them dry for two hours or so. I started experimenting on them and sure enough no white spots and the paint went down much easier. Alot of that is due to the techniques I learned about paints, in relation to how you should mix them, put them on the page, getting the right paint water balance and so on.



So here is where im at now. Lots more to do, it will be a whole lot darker when Im done, probably less yellow but im guna try not to just dull it down too. I could do this a million times and still not know everything but I think for the sake of the deadline im just going to try and finish this, and If I paint an area and realise shit I should have done something different, well Il just save it for the next painting.

Friday 5 February 2010

Conceptual Update










I havent got the chance to take these pics the last couple of weeks, its never bright out when I think of doing it. Anyway these are just some of the studies I did, Im pretty sure I did more but sure fock it!